There was definitely rain at some time during the night. It looks quite damp outside at the moment, but it doesn't seem to be raining. However it is very dull right now. This afternoon should feature a lot of sunny spells, and the temperature should rise to a rather good 20 to 21° C. Heavy rain is forecast for late tonight, although the BBC and Met Office disagree about the details. As Usual the BBC have thrown in a few thunderstorms that the Met Office doesn't predict. Most of the daylight hours tomorrow should feature sunny spells, and the afternoon temperature should rise to 18° C.

   Yesterday was yet another of those good and bad day. The bad was insufficient distractions from eating too much. That had had consequences, but oddly enough it can't be blamed on my outing to Poundstretcher this time, but more on stuff bought from Aldi when I was there last weekend.

  One good thing about yesterday was that after risking another couple of weeks of drips from my water heater, I altered the thermostat, and yesterday I had a shower using hot water, Maybe it was a tiny bit hotter than I would say is ideal, but it was far from scalding. I think I actually enjoyed that shower. After I had finished I put some laundry in to soak in one of  my big builders buckets. Incidentally, the dripping from the heater thermostat seems to be getting less frequent more quickly than last time.

  Despite showering in hot water I didn't seem to need much time to cool off before getting dressed to go out. Maybe it was because I hadn't washed my hair, and so heated my head up with hot water, and then the hairdryer afterwards. I remembered what it was I specifically wanted from Poundstretcher before I put my coat on to go out. It was some paper plates. Maybe they are not ecologically sound, but they can make life so much easier at times.

  My walk to Poundstretcher started to feel bad until I remembered to force myself to breath more deeply, and some growing discomfort started to fade away again. I suppose that in Victorian times this was known as having a weak chest, and indeed that does seem to be what it is - except it is more complex than that. I am sure that if my blood oxygenation is getting low, and presumably my carbon dioxide output getting less, my body is supposed to auto regulate, but it seems I have to consciously do it a lot these days.

  I am happy to say that Poundstretcher did have paper plates in stock, and I bought three lots in three different colours. Sadly there were no pale blue plates, which I think are my favourites, but I did get some gold coloured plates that look pretty even if the gold serves no real purpose. Other paper products bought were two boxes of man sized tissues. This has become needed because it seems Aldi still have not found any new stocks of man sized tissues.

  Poundstretcher were selling twin boxes of Kleenex tissues for £2.99, and I am sure that is more expensive than Aldi. It is hard to make a comparison because the Aldi boxes claim to contain 100 sheets, but the Kleenex boxes say only 90 sheets. To confound things further the Kleenex boxes weight about 10% more than the Aldi boxes. Maybe the individual Kleenex sheets are thicker, possibly three ply or something. I did try a single sheet, and maybe they do seem more rubust, and last longer before they start to disintegrate.

  I probably bought less food in Poundstretcher this time. I bought no instant noodles, and only bought some reduced/no added sugar biscuits. Much of the weight in my rucksack was stuff like bottles of bleach and bottles of shampoo and conditioner.  I'm sure there is something else significant that I bought, but I can't seem to recall what it was......err,, it has just come to me. I bought a bottle of Thai chilli sauce. It does seem to have some sugar in it, but it is just about hot enough to be only used in small to medium quantities.

  For some reason, the walk home from Poundstretcher didn't seem as bad as the walk there. One notable difference was that the extra weight of my shopping was enough to make me feel warmer. On top of that, I think, but can't be sure, that there was a sunny spell as I walked home, and that warmed me up further. I was starting to feel sticky when I got home. Cold always makes my aches and pains worse, and feeling warm tends to almost stop them happening.

  I can't seem to remember the order I did them, but I did two things after getting home. One was to have a hot bowl of pea and ham soup with added Thai chilli sauce. It was very pleasant, and too my mind off more food for hours (at least 2 of them !). The other thing was to make an order with Beers Of Europe (dot com) for more beers. I think I managed to find a small selection beers that Jodie may have never tried, and many I have never tried before (although my memory for beers is far worse than Jodie's). I also ordered a few strong beers for myself, including a few more barley wines.

  I think it was a legacy of when Beers Of Europe had some IT problems the last time I tried to use them. They would not accept my password, and seemed unable to send any emails to do a password reset, or even acknowledge my order was accepted. The first I knew it was accepted was when the couriers notified me they had my box of beers and were due to deliver it the next day. I suspect their database was corrupted, and was reporting something my credit card company didn't like. When I used my other credit card, and put in all the details afresh, it was accepted OK. I was hoping to hear from the couriers last night, to say the beers would be delivered today It was supposed to be delivered "the next working day". Maybe it will still come today, or maybe it will be delivered tomorrow.

  I found it hard to raise the enthusiasm to get back to the laundry I had left soaking, but when I did it could only have been a few hours after putting it in to soak because the soapy water was still slightly warm. I must admit it did seem I had started soaking quite an unusual amount of stuff to wash. It was only when I was hanging it up to dry that I realised it was just one single t-shirt, and 9 pairs of underpants !

  The only other thing I did yesterday was to do a bit of washing up, and some cooking. My dinner was going to be very simple. It was to be grilled skinless and boneless chicken seasoned with any spices and herb to hand, plus a good squirt of the Thai chilli sauce. The latter was possibly a waste of time because although it left a red stain on the the chicken, it didn't seem to contribute much flavour or heat.

  To go with the meat I cleaned and boiled some baby potatoes. I have been trying to use them up for some time after the last bag I had was so old that the potatoes started to sprout. It meant that I cleaned and cooked rather more potatoes than was ideal for me. Just before 5.30pm I put the cooked potatoes and chicken on a plate, and put them all in the microwave to get them all nice and hot. After microwaving the meal I added some mayonnaise, and even some low sugar tomato ketchup.

   I have to admit that it was quite disappointing, although quite filling....in a way.  It may have been that all the Star Treks I saw failed to hold my attention, and I got tempted to have some biscuits and some crisp not too long after I had finished eating my dinner.  It may not have helped that I had also drunk two small cans and one big cans of moderate strength beer.

   By the time I tried to get to sleep, not long after 9pm because QI also failed to hold my attention when it started at 9pm, I had moderate heartburn. It was then to go through the boring routine of taking antacids, sitting on the toilet hoping something might happen, and reading stuff off the internet until I found my eyes closing as I tried to read. One thing that helped was turning the heater on low, or rather not turning it off when I turned the TV off. On my second attempt for sleep it was warm enough not to need to shiver under the duvet.

  Once asleep I seemed to sleep quite well, although I think I did a lot of dreaming. One dream was easy to remember because it was highly erotic. It concerned someone I recognised as being a teacher from the school where a friend worked - except as a teacher she wore a sort of invisible cloak that made her seem very unattractive. Freed from the straits of school life she came across as very sexy. The wonderful thing about the dream was that all the boring stuff, chatting up, and the rest of "the chase" was in the past, and I dived straight into the "dirty stuff" (as some might have it). It was such a refreshing change to usual erotic dreams where I usually wake up just as the good stuff starts !

   The only other notable thing about my sleep was not so much the three times I had to get up to pee, but the seemingly large quantity of each pee. Whether it was a lot I really don't know. It could indicate a high blood glucose level. Sometimes it doesn't but it seems this time it did. (I was hoping it was just because I had drunk 3 cans of beer in the evening).

  My Contour blood glucose meter read 8.3mmol/l. That was higher than the last few days, but isn't all that high, and less than my old target of 8.5mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter read 8.5mmol/l. That was the exact figure of my old target (set during a period of time when I was consistently getting higher levels). The Sinocare meter was the one that rubbed salt into the wound with a reading of 9.0mmol/l, although that is only just in the first low danger zone by the skin of it's teeth.

  The main negative affect of all I ate yesterday was that I seemed to have gone back to an earlier time when I weighed more. Somehow I had a sort of manic belief that my recent drop of weight was too good to true to last, but maybe that is long time training after watching my weight bob up and down like a man drowning at sea.

  My day is very open ended today. My original thought, based on yesterday's weather forecast for heavy rain today, which turned out not to be true, although it does seem that it could still be very gloomy, was that it was no point going to the pub this lunchtime - particularly when my favourite bar maid is on holiday again (if I have my dates right.  It may be far better to stay n, stay warm, and a bit bored. I am contemplating the idea of going to an open mic night in Bromley tonight. I probably won't go, but it is a possible option.